Spicy Tuna Tartare

Vernon, the fish seller at the Bethesda Central Farm Market, had some Atlantic bigeye tuna (Monterey Bay Aquarium "Best Choice") last week. Just because it was there I had to try it although we weren't sure how we'd eat it. We'd already had a salade Nicoise the week prior so I figured on doing it Asian style with some sesame seeds and a quick sear on each side. I bought a huge bag of snow peas to serve with it. Sometime later in the day, though, I decided to play around. I ended up using the tuna raw as it was so fresh and Vernon so reputable but couldn't decide on any one method. Finally, I made three different dishes for us to sample. One was ceviche style with some lime juice and red onion and a little splash of olive oil. The second, Paul's favorite, was an Italian style crudo - thinly sliced and then just drizzled with a little olive oil and lemon juice and then sprinkled with Maldon sea salt.

The third method tasted a little like a spicy tuna roll. We ate it with great quality taco chips, but would be delicious with fried egg roll wrappers or rolled into a seaweed cone. Even Neva-Betta crackers.

Spicy Tuna Tartare

(serves 4 - 6 as an hors d'oeuvre or appetizer)

1/2 Cup Mayonnaise ( I used Hellman's Light Mayo and it was fine)
2 tablespoons Sriracha sauce
1 teaspoon sesame oil
3/4 pound piece of really fresh tuna from a reliable source
1/4 cup finely diced red onion
2 stalks very thinly sliced green garlic (or 1 fat garlic clove, minced)

1. Mix first three ingredients in a small bowl and set aside.

2. Dice up the tuna as finely as you can without shredding it.

3. Place cut up tuna into a medium bowl, add the onion and garlic, and then add about 2 or 3 tablespoons of the Sriracha mayo and gently mix. Add more mayo bit by bit until you get a taste and consistency you like. Save the leftover mayo for another dish!

4. Serve with good quality taco chips or fried wanton skins, or make a roll with a seaweed cone.

Salade Nicoise

Way back in 9th grade French class, Ms. Gold introduced me to salade Nicoise. She was one of those teachers who inspires students and encouraged us to appreciate France and French culture in addition to teaching us grammar. We listened to Plastic Bertrand in class ( I do hope some of mes amis are reading!), went to see French films and ate in French restaurants in New York. She was young, hip and quirky and we loved it all.

Each year with Ms. Gold and then, later, with Madame DeMuth, Randi Cohen and I baked a traditional Buche de Noel for the class holiday party. Randi's mother always let us bake the Buche at their house, and as best as I can remember, was also nice enough to clean up after us. Despite this largesse, and as much fun as I remember having, I suspect the complicated and labor intensive recipe which required many pans, pots and a candy thermometer, is why I don't bake much now. I still have the recipe, a faded blue "ditto" with creases from where I had it folded into eight for many years, just in case.

But the salade Nicoise stuck. As soon as it gets warm in DC and the farmstands start carrying green beans and new potatoes, I begin to crave this perfect salad as a light meal. Recently, the stars aligned: it was warm and I was able to buy some fresh potatoes and beans.

This is, as is often the case with me, not really a recipe. I'm not a traditionalist and I love to improvise a little so I'll just give you some guidelines.


A bed of butter, Boston or leaf lettuce

A few handfuls green beans, I particularly like thinner ones or haricots verts, lightly steamed or blanched and then plunged into ice cold water

A few new red or fingerling potatoes per person, can also use baby Yukon golds, cut in half or quarters if large and boiled for about 10 minutes until fork-tender

grape or cherry tomatoes, or cut up tomatoes

tuna in oil - use a great quality brand in olive oil. For the salad in the picture, I used a 10 oz. jar of Flott.

hard boiled egg (I like to try to leave the centers just a little under hard-cooked) - 1 per person - cut in half

olives

thinly sliced red onion

capers for a garnish - well rinsed, salt-packed are best

anchovies - curl one on a few of the egg halves

vinaigrette - recipe below

This photo shows our salad before I dressed it, as the second after I drizzled on the vinaigrette, everyone pounced! You'll notice, however, that there are neither anchovies nor olives, both traditional components of a salade Nicoise. As whole anchovies are not a favorite in our house, I sometimes add a little anchovy paste to the vinaigrette in lieu of curling the fillets atop the eggs, although this time I did neither. As I'm the only olive eater, I add those to my plate alone. The cucumbers are a non traditional addition - I had a seedless cucumber in the salad bin I felt like using up and thought it would add some crunch.

Here is the piece de resistance (wish I could figure out how to add in the accents!)...I used a jar of Flott tuna from Sicily on this salad. I was raised in a "tuna in water" house and have bought only that for much of my adult life. For a mayo tuna salad, that's still what I buy. But for salade Nicoise, tuna in oil is preferred. If you buy a really great brand like Flott (or Ortiz "conserva" as I've learned from a food52-er), the tuna is packed in high quality olive oil and just adds to the flavor of the dish. You can drain it just a little bit before serving and you can cut back a little on the oil in the dressing or just not drizzle the dressing on the tuna. If you buy a great quality tuna in oil, the oil itself is a great quality olive oil.

If you prefer, this is also terrific with some thinly sliced, lightly seared fresh tuna. No matter which tuna you use, serve with a crisp white wine and some good French bread.

Basic Vinaigrette for Salade Nicoise

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon wine vinegar
1/4 cup good quality extra virgin olive oil
pinch salt
few grinds pepper

1. In a small bowl, whisk together the mustard and vinegar.

2. Slowly pour in the olive oil with one hand while whisking with the other.

3. Add salt and pepper to taste.

The Springiest Potato Salad Ever

As I've mentioned many times before, I just don't love mayonnaise based salads. I've been a vinaigrette gal since way back. I began thinking about this potato salad the other day when Food52 announced that this week's contest is "your best potato salad." This one immediately came to mind and as I checked back into my blog archives, I found that I never actually posted this recipe. I almost posted this recipe last year at exactly this time (May 28, 2009 - at least I'm consistent), but didn't post it then because it seemed to me I'd been overdoing it with vinaigrette recipes.

I happened upon some really fresh, tiny, new red potatoes at the farm stand last weekend and although this dish is tasty with any small potato (I've used red, different fingerling varieties and baby Yukon golds all with great success) these new potatoes were something special. In fact, all the vegetable components of this dish are completely fresh at farm stands in the DC area right now. Make it this weekend for your Memorial Day barbecues! Later on in the summer, you can easily sub in minced regular garlic and scallions, or even minced shallots for the spring onions.

So one year later, here it is. Karen R. please let me know if this differs from what I sent you last year!

Wendy's Springiest Potato Salad Ever

(serves 4 - 6 as a side dish)

2 lbs. washed new red potatoes, halved or quartered if larger. I like to try to buy the ones as close to one inch around as possible. Try to keep all the pieces close to the same size so they cook in the same amount of time.

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

1 teaspoon whole grain mustard

1 tablespoon red wine or champagne vinegar

1/4 cup olive oil

a couple of pinches of salt, more to taste

a few grinds of pepper, more to taste

scant 1/4 cup thinly sliced green or spring garlic, the kind that looks like scallions (or two cloves minced regular garlic)

1/4 cup thinly sliced green or spring onions, plus another tablespoon for garnish (or scallions - or even 2 small minced shallots)

1 cup pea shoots, roughly chopped (should be a few large handfuls when whole)



1. Put cut potatoes in a large saucepan and cover with water by about 1/2 to 1 inch. Lightly salt the water. Bring to a boil and then lower to a low boil/high simmer for 8 - 10 minutes. Check potato piece after about 8 minutes by piercing with a fork. You want the fork to slide in easily, but you don't want to let the potatoes get mushy.

2. While the potatoes cook, in a large bowl, whisk the mustards and vinegar together. Add the olive oil in a stream, whisking as you add. Add salt and pepper. Add the green onions and green garlic to the vinaigrette and toss.

3. When potatoes are fully cooked, drain in a colander and immediately add into the bowl with the vinaigrette. Mix gently.

4. Add in the chopped pea shoots and toss gently but well. Taste for salt and pepper.

5. Garnish with reserved green onions or scallions.

6. Serve warm or at room temperature. If you make this earlier in the day, refrigerate in the interim, but take out about 1/2 hour before you want to serve so that the salad can come back to room temperature.

June Gourmet, Unbound

It's that time of the month again - time for a link to a recipe from a June issue of Gourmet magazine. This month I made Soba Noodles with Pea Shoots, Shiitake Mushrooms, and Leeks from June 1994. I love soba noodles both for taste and health - other than the sodium in the soy sauce, this is a healthy dish, full of delicious vegetables and hearty whole grain soba noodles.

In addition to the vegetables called for in the recipe, I added one head of baby bok choy, cut up a little, to the leeks in the pan. Baby spinach or other greens would work equally well. I also added about a half cup of chicken stock (you could easily use vegetable stock) to the pan and let the leeks and bok choy braise a little. This added a little extra "sauce" to an otherwise rather dry dish. And, I added about a quarter cup of water to the soy sauce and vinegar mixture for the same reason. The result was a cross between a straight noodle dish and a soup. Lastly, I gave the pea shoots a rough chop before putting them in the colander.

As the guys in the house were out practicing their short games for a charity golf tournament, my lovely daughter and I enjoyed this for lunch without them. For her, the mostly vegetarian meal worked well. However you could easily add a small piece of salmon or some shredded chicken on top of the noodles for a heartier dinner.

Here's the link:

http://epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Soba-with-Pea-Shoots-Shiitake-Mushrooms-and-Leeks-12060

How to Make Your Life Easier

I think another discussion about weeknight dinners is warranted. Michael Ruhlman, a noted food writer, agitated the food world a couple of weeks ago when he claimed that we shouldn't be focused on 30 minute meals, or 20 minute meals, or for that matter quick meals of any kind. As he put it in the Huffington Post, he "called bullsh*t" on the idea that we're too busy to cook. His answer? Roast a chicken for an hour and use the time it's in the oven to do homework with the kids. I'm not even going to start.

On the way to this helpful "solution," he disses both Rachael Ray and Jamie Oliver, both of whom seek to teach people to use healthy ingredients and cook at home, even with limited time and budget.

Many food bloggers have taken up the cause in response to Ruhlman's parry and have declared that they will now blog about the boring day to day dinners they make when pressed for time, in hopes of helping other busy people cook healthy food at home. I guess this is why my blog has such a limited readership. I've been doing this all along. Most of the food I include here isn't at all sexy or fancy, or even photogenic, but hopefully some recipes are speedy enough for weeknight healthy eating. I'm inspired to renew my efforts to provide more quick recipes that still taste great and include fresh and healthy ingredients.

To begin this effort, I'd like to go back to my pantry post from last year. One of the biggest problems with weeknight cooking, and one of the main reasons to throw your hands up and order a pizza, is not having a sufficiently stocked kitchen. I learned this first hand when I was forced out of my extremely well-stocked home into a furnished rental for a month last summer. I had very limited space for pantry items and very little in the way of pots and other cooking implements. And we definitely did order pad thai much more frequently.

Perhaps part of what people mean when they say they don't have time to cook is that they don't have time (or energy, really) to shop. This is a tough one, because though many stores are open earlier in the morning and stay open later in the evening, it requires a great deal of discipline to force yourself to do the grocery shopping before or after work. I think the key is organization. Limit the trips to once a week, if possible, with a quick extra stop for fresh milk, fish, fruit or veggies if necessary. Go armed with a detailed list of pantry items that are running low and items for easy weeknight meals. Try planning a couple of meals out during the weekend - maybe a stir fry or some roasted salmon with rice. Add those ingredients to the list.

My list doesn't vary much week to week. Certain items are staples in our house: milk, salad ingredients, vegetables, orange juice, bread, yogurt bananas, fruit, etc. When I worked full-time and had au pairs living with us, I kept a notepad in the kitchen for the grocery list. Those staple items were always on it. In addition, whoever either finished an item or noticed one running low was responsible for putting it on the list. If it wasn't on the list, it probably wasn't going to get purchased. Late in the week one of us might have made an emergency milk run, but generally, we made it through the week.

I'm a semi-professional shopper now, and I am able to hit more than one store a week, but I still use a list and keep a substantial pantry. During the growing season, I do my main shopping at farmstands on Saturday or Sunday. From a bulging bag of vegetables, I can plan ahead for the week. Even if you're serving pasta and jarred sauce, a fresh bunch of sauteed kale or roasted carrots or turnips can take the meal up a notch.

One thing I'd like to encourage for pasta eaters is to keep a few jars of really delicious sauce around. In a pinch, some Rao's or Cucina Antica marinara on penne with some fresh shaved Pecorino, and maybe some crunchy grissini or breadsticks can feel like a restaurant meal. These sauces are a bit more expensive per jar, but if it saves you from ordering in,and keeps you healthier, it's probably cheaper in the long run. I am careful to check for ingredient lists that only include real food that I would use myself in a home made sauce, and to check for those lower in sodium. I recently discovered Cucina Antica brand which is on the lower end of the sodium spectrum.

A rotisserie chicken can also be more than the sum of it's parts, so to speak. Many markets now roast them without all the seasonings so they are both lower in sodium and versatile to use in recipes. I've shredded the meat of a rotisserie chicken for everything from faux mu shu using flour tortillas and hoisin sauce along with pre-shredded cabbage to "tacos" with corn tortillas, shredded lettuce, cheese, and tomatoes. Chunks of the meat can go into soups and stews as well. Recently, I used an unseasoned rotisserie chicken to make a mayo-free Spanish style chicken salad which was delicious on a bed of baby spinach with a sliced avocado and a couple of olives alongside.

Frozen rice is another great time saver. Trader Joes and many grocery stores sell boxes with individual bags of pre-cooked and frozen rice (with no additives) ready to microwave. In three minutes you can have brown or jasmine rice to serve with your quick cooking shrimp or salmon and veggies.

Bagged salad used to be staple, but it's too iffy these days. I stick with actual heads of lettuce and keep a salad spinner on the counter top for quicker rinsing and drying. Grape tomatoes don't need any cutting so are an easy addition to the salad.

Please share your tips with everyone in the comment section!!